A Study on the Influence of Mysticism on Russian Legal Thought from the End of the Nineteenth Century to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century

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Religious thought of which religious mysticism in particular received growing attention within circles of Russian legal thought from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century. During this period of industrialization and massification of societies, Russia and Europe were undergoing a transition in which the traditional conception of the "individual" was being challenged and new concepts of the "individual" were being sought. As P.Novgorodtsev points out in The Crisis of Contemporary Legal Consciousness, traditional legal theory (will theory-based) whose idea of human rights was derived from the ideal of the free and rational individual will was no longer sufficient as the right theory for mass society. It was required by the legal thought of the time to transform the Russian state proper and to promote the creation of a framework which advocates individual rights as a collective idea. As a result, Russian legal thought turned its attention to religion. … More Consequently, a distinct union or fusion of Russian legal thought and religious thought emerged. This study identifies Vladimir Soloviev as a noteworthy individual illuminating the fusion of legal and religious thought in the exceptional Russian context, and analyzes his contributions towards forming new conceptions of the individual and the collective.The peculiarity of Russian religious thought, as represented in Soloviev's writings is the intention to materialize the divine world on earth, which is a theory of transforming realities i.e. "the intention to spiritualize" human beings and material objects in the real world. Therefore, spiritualized humans and material objects, regardless of their rationality, possess an absolute right to exist, which transcends the traditional right-will theory. I investigated the structure of this argument in Vladimir Soloviev and Occultism and in other articles.It has been observed in the process of this research that mysticism is closely associated with Platonism. The characteristics and function of the acceptance of Plato and Platonism in Russia are potential areas of further research. Less